Minoxidil: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Minoxidil is an arteriolar vasodilator sold in the U.S. under 6 brand and generic names, for alopecia and malignant hypertension. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Drug class
- Arteriolar Vasodilator
- Treats (across its forms)
- Alopecia and Malignant Hypertension
- Available as
- Spray/Inhaler · Topical · Solution · Tablet
- Sold as
- 6 products — Men's Rogaine, Rogaine (for Men) and Rogaine (for Women), and others
- Prescription?
- Both Rx and OTC forms
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- Half-life
- about 4.2 hours
- What the pharmacy pays
- about $5 for a 30-count supply — not your price
How Men's Rogaine is dosed
From the FDA label for Men's Rogaine (application NDA021812). Other minoxidil products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Directions apply half a capful 2 times a day to the scalp in the hair loss area massage into scalp with fingers, then wash hands well see enclosed booklet for complete directions on how to use using more or more often will not improve results continued use is necessary to increase and keep your hair regrowth or hair loss will begin again
Every minoxidil product we track (6)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
| # | Drug | Rating | Type | Form | Generic? | Pharmacy pays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 70/100 | Over-the-counter | Topical | Generic | $5 | View → | |
| 2 | 70/100 | Over-the-counter | Solution | Generic | $5 | View → | |
| 3 | 70/100 | Over-the-counter | Solution | Generic | $5 | View → | |
| 4 | 70/100 | Over-the-counter | Solution | Generic | $5 | View → | |
| 5 | 70/100 | Over-the-counter | Topical | Generic | $5 | View → | |
| 6 | 64/100 | Prescription | Tablet | Generic | $5 | View → |
How long minoxidil keeps
No minoxidil label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.
Does minoxidil expire? The in-use limits and storage rules from its labelsMinoxidil and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for minoxidil: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadBecause of the minimal amount of information on this potent agent, use oral minoxidil with caution, particularly when therapy involves a large maternal dosage or breastfeeding a newborn. Maternal topical minoxidil is acceptable once breastfeeding is established. Avoid contact between the infant and skin treated with minoxidil because it can be absorbed by the infant and cause adverse effects such as excessive hair growth.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised May 15, 2026. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about minoxidil
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 33,398 reports naming minoxidil, and the FDA flagged 15% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- adverse drug reaction8,574 reports
- application site pruritus2,542 reports
- application site irritation1,230 reports
- headache1,116 reports
- application site pain1,095 reports
- alopecia937 reports
- inappropriate schedule of product administration756 reports
- application site dryness738 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean minoxidil caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved August 25, 2026.
How long minoxidil stays in your system
The elimination half-life of minoxidil is about 4.2 hours. From the oral (Loniten-type) tablet label, used for hypertension. Half-life is not the same as duration of effect: plasma minoxidil clears fast (peaks within 1 hour, ~4.2 h half-life, no plasma-protein binding, does not cross the blood-brain barrier), yet a single dose lowers blood pressure for about 75 hours because the drug's antihypertensive action outlasts its presence in blood. Minoxidil is a prodrug for vasodilation — it must be converted to minoxidil sulfate (the active form) in tissue — but the label states its known metabolites exert much less pharmacologic effect than minoxidil itself and are cleared in urine, so the parent's 4.2 h figure is the relevant elimination half-life. About 90% is metabolized (mainly glucuronide conjugation) and excreted in urine; clearance can be prolonged with impaired renal function or in patients on dialysis. This number is a pharmacokinetic half-life, not a drug-test detection window.
MINOXIDIL tablet — Clinical Pharmacology, DailyMed (FDA label) ↗Half-life is how long the body takes to clear half a dose. It is not the same as how long a drug test can detect it, and it varies with age, kidney and liver function.
Related guides
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is Men's Rogaine?
Use to regrow hair on the top of the scalp (vertex only, see pictures on side of this carton)
What kind of drug is minoxidil?
The FDA classifies minoxidil as an arteriolar vasodilator. If you are checking whether it is safe to combine with something else, the class is what matters — two drugs from the same class usually should not be stacked.
How long does minoxidil stay in your system?
The elimination half-life of minoxidil is about 4.2 hours — that is how long the body takes to clear half of a dose. From the oral (Loniten-type) tablet label, used for hypertension. Half-life is not the same as duration of effect: plasma minoxidil clears fast (peaks within 1 hour, ~4.2 h half-life, no plasma-protein binding, does not cross the blood-brain barrier), yet a single dose lowers blood pressure for about 75 hours because the drug's antihypertensive action outlasts its presence in blood. Minoxidil is a prodrug for vasodilation — it must be converted to minoxidil sulfate (the active form) in tissue — but the label states its known metabolites exert much less pharmacologic effect than minoxidil itself and are cleared in urine, so the parent's 4.2 h figure is the relevant elimination half-life. About 90% is metabolized (mainly glucuronide conjugation) and excreted in urine; clearance can be prolonged with impaired renal function or in patients on dialysis. This number is a pharmacokinetic half-life, not a drug-test detection window. Half-life is not the same as how long a drug test can detect the drug, and it varies with age, kidney and liver function.
Can you take minoxidil with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run minoxidil against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What brand names is minoxidil sold under?
We track 6 minoxidil-containing products in the U.S.: Men's Rogaine, Rogaine (for Men), Rogaine (for Women), Rogaine Extra Strength (for Men), Women's Rogaine and Loniten. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does minoxidil come in?
Across the brands we track, minoxidil is currently marketed as spray/inhaler, topical, solution and tablet, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic minoxidil?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled minoxidil product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Minoxidil: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/minoxidil
- MLA
- “Minoxidil: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/minoxidil.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for minoxidil on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.